ECU Tuning & The Evolution 4G63!

[Sanctifier]

ECU Tuning & the 4G63!

INTRODUCTION:
What happens when you add aftermarket parts to an Evo engine?
Instant "Power", right?... Wrong!...
All too frequently, what really happens is a drop in power and torque at lower rpm...
"peaky" or fluctuating power and torque curves, especially in the mid-range...
more turbo "lag"...poor idle... stalling... or lost driving flexibility.
Sometimes even "all of the above!"

Choose your parts combination carefully, or all you'll feel is the breeze blowing through
your empty wallet as you drive.

The keys to a successful upgrade are COMPATABILITY!... and RELIABILITY!
Without it, you're just throwing away your hard earned $$$ and "spinning-top-in-mud!"

PREPERATION:
As far as 'RELIABILITY' goes, let's just say that without it; you don't... "Go!" that is.
Sooo :::... FIRST STEPS!
The following usually are recommended first as precautionary measures:
:::... ARP Con-rod bolts. The OEM bolts fail first, not the con-rods.
....... You are increasing the RPM limit a little aren't you?
....... 8,000 rpm should be about right on an otherwise standard "bottom end".
:::... ARP Cylinder head studs. Improve cylinder 'sealing' before increasing boost levels significantly.
:::... Evo 9 "5-ply" OEM Cylinder Head gasket. Use on all Gen_2 4G63's. They seal much better.
:::... Walbro 255 litre-per-minute, high-pressure, "in-tank" fuel pump.
....... The standard Evo pumps have been known to over-heat and fail with engine upgrades.
:::... Oil pump may need upgrading at levels exceeding 8,500 rpm ( ? )
....... Not sure of upgrade for that one. Ask Road/Race Engineering, USA.

::: Read... READ!... READ! as many articles about your particular car as possible.
::: Talk to 2nrs with successful 'tuned' car of the same model.
::: Decide what your 'major' use will be... "Drags" / "Circuit" / "Solodex" / "Street"
or "a couple of the above."

Remember it's almost impossible to be "all things to all men."
The last choice is sometimes the best... but has the most headaches, usually gives
the least results because of compromises, and often costs the most money too.
Remember, for any good "street" car to be truly successful...
"Yah gotta have some 'bling' to go wit da 'sting', capiche?"

ECU TUNING OPTIONS:
... and the Ruler of the COMPATABILITY Kingdom is your ECU!
Get it right and you'll be all smiles all the time. Get it wrong and...
... but how can you encourage the ECU to work with you...
especially when the factory spends "millions" to make your life difficult? (or so it seems)

Read on... (more "dial-up" friendly now.)
Evo 8 Flash Dance: - "Turbo" - Feb 2006.




Yup, it is only one approach to the problem, but it works doesn't it?

ECU RE-FLASH:
The 're-flash' is "first line of ECU defence" for 2nrs.
Usually this means sending the ECU to the 'speed shop'/agent, who downloads more
appropriate parameters ("maps") for Air-Fuel ratios / Boost limits / RPM levels
/ Speed limiters etc. based upon customer 'set-up' and additional requests.
The better ones even allow some minor ignition timing adjustments as well
(usually within the confines of the 'master' ignition map of the ECU.)

ECU INTERCEPTORS: (a.k.a. "Piggy-back" ECUs)
The next step up the ECU ladder is the interceptor, a.k.a. "piggy-back" that plugs-in
between the ECU and the wiring harness. IMHO there are some older "piggy-back"
systems that have too many questions hanging over their heads.
Case in point... the OEM system offered in the 2004/05 Evo 8 FQ340!
RC Developments have gotten some very disturbing results after testing these OEM systems...

RC Developments FAQ - http://www.rcdevelopments.com/fq/fq.html

*"We attached a boost gauge to the MR along with our wideband lambda reader
to see if all was well prior to working on the vehicle. We also took a stethoscope to
listen for nasty noises - just in case.

When driving, we were disappointed to notice MASSIVE boost over-swing.
Our gauge actually showed over 1.6 bar..... In fact the boost sent the needle off the
gauge and then oscillated at around 1.4 bar. We would expect a max of 0.05 bar as an
over-swing figure, not well over 0.2bar! (That's nearly 3 psi!...)

Next, as the revs climbed, we noticed that the car was running very lean. TOO lean to be safe.
It was tuned like a NA car not a turbo ! We were concerned that this would cause
detonation and unfortunately we were right. It was audible between 5500 -6000 rpm
and we lifted off the power instantly."*

Doesn't sound too good, does it!...
BTW the last 'plot' below is of the "Unichip"; which RC Developments thinks was the
"piggy-back" ECU that was used in the FQ340.

................

But newer "piggy-back" interceptor systems are also giving excellent results today as well.
Case in point: the GReddy e-manage Ultimate, and the Chiptorque Xede offer excellent results
and are very user friendly. In addition they allow "expandability" for future engine
upgrades; something that ECU "re-flashes" can't do without being returned to the dealer first.

It seems that the key to the success of "piggy-back" interceptor systems is correct
"Crank Angle Sensor" signal replication. Done right... they work beautifully...
Done wrong... read RC Developments above*
Here the "ChipTorque Xede" clearly has the edge IMHO. Just refer to the 'plots' above.
The Xede is nearly 100% identical to the OEM ECU's CAS signal!

Also the main strength that 'piggy-backs' have over 'stand-alone' ECUs is a level of operating "sophistication" that few 'stand-alone' 2nrs can ever hope to achieve.

They retain all the features of an OEM ECU like OBD II functions and diagnostic data-logging, "cold start" operation, flexibility with/without the air-conditioning working ("idle-up" and secondary fan control etc.) and other OEM protocols, vital for driving 'flexibility', good mileage and smooth operation so necessary for street use.

Some newer 'piggy-backs' also have launch control, "hot change" (W.O.T.) shifting etc. just like the 'stand-alone' units. The only thing many can't do is remove (or increase) "speed limit" value, peak RPM values, change the 'base' boost control map (some can), or make allowances for different, extra large injectors. That's where a re-flash of the "base maps" comes in...
Now add the 'piggy-back'... Best of both worlds for street applications IMHO.
Newer 'piggy-backs' ain't cheap anymore either. Better ones are as much as $1500 US.

So as a 'bare minimum' any 2nr adding a couple 'add-on' parts should do the following:
::: 'Re-flash' the standard ECU after informing the speed-shop of his specific set-up and needs.
::: For the Evo's 4G63 ECU, this usually includes new parameters for the following:
:::...... RPM 'limiter' NB. IMHO don't remove this completely!
.......... 8,000 RPM is a safe limit for "street" use when using ARP con-rod bolts.
:::...... Speed limiter removal.
:::...... Boost limit.
:::...... Ignition curve.

Ideally the 2nr (with slightly deeper pockets) should also do the following:
:::...... Add a "tested" "piggy-back" ECU that's popular with 2nrs.
.......... Use this with the dyno-tested maps supplied to further refine your set-up.
.......... Using this base line, "tune" further... after getting the supplier's advice first.

"STAND-ALONE" ECUs... King of the Hill!
The final option is the "stand alone" ECU system. Can you say MONEY?
This is usually very expensive for the better products, if you want better results, that is.
Top quality systems can cost more than $2,500 US, and usually offer excellent performance.
But there's a 'down-side'...

While 'stand alone' ECUs are the best option for maximum 'track' performance, in order to get optimum 'street' performance, you must tune your car on a dyno as well as do "road tuning." Ahmm... no 4-wheel dynos available here at the moment... so it's still very much up to the 2nr's skill, and results vary widely.

Almost the same situation is faced if you use a "piggy-back" ECU.
While most OEM data is available (OBD II diagnostics, "cold start," A/C operation etc.) Tuning for "upgrades" still remains a problem.
It 'boils down' to which speedshop has "maps" that are most similar to your application.

CONCLUSION:
As you have seen above, even the OEM gets it wrong sometimes...
Buy something that has back-up "support" and maybe can be "tuned" by you, at home!
Sooo... your final choice relies even more heavily on how much info you gather...
how popular your model and setup are with other 2nrs... and the size of your budget!...

That should help!...
Humm!... Maybe I should "sticky" this one.
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!

[Plex]

impressive..

[vfp16]

aye real good info there man, thanks.

[Plex]

really good stuff there..amazing...

[Sanctifier]

Update: A little more info and diagram added.
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!

[NarendZORCE]

Definitely worth stickying Sanctifier... excellent info, a MUST READ for all Evo owners.
_________________
Drags, Circuit, Solodex, Rally, Karting, the Shows, the Girls, the Car you drive...
ZORCERs done know... the speed lifestyle magazine in the Islands, ZORCE
Click to hear it >> http://www.zorce.com/fortheforums/Zorce15NEW.mp3
Download & SEE iT! >> http://www.zorce.com/fortheforums/Zorce-15.mp4
...........................................................
Oh Yeah! Feel the Rush, it's like... WOW!
May the (Mass x Acceleration)-F+Z be with you...

[Sanctifier]

Minor info update.
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!

[R. Mutt]

TacTrix.com will be releasing a new version of EcuFlash specific for Evos. This Open Source software in combination with the the interface cable (US $89) will allow you to not only datalog, but reflash your ecu.

This is great news for all evo owners as you not have a much more affordable outlet for making ecu adjutments directly instead if via piggyback controllers. The system will use your typical OBDII interface cable that plugs into the consult port of your evo to datalog, the relash connector and USB cable to conenct to your laptop:



even if your worried about scewing up your ecu by messing around you can always just use the system to datalog and back up your ROM. Furthermore you could always upload other ROMs for Race Gas, Water injection and switch bewteen the two in seconds.

This kind of access is not really recommended to those unfamilair with Ecu tuning and would best be left to a professional tuner for adjustment. However, if you are familiar with EFI tuning at any level, this will be great assett to making incremental adjustments to both base timing, correction, fuel maps etc. Even so, the novice can benefit by reading check trouble codes and monitoring his engine directly as the ecu sees it.

To quote some of the thread from evolutionm.net:

[R. Mutt]

I'd like to buy the cable and test out the datalogging and attempt to save a ROM. as soon as I get a reply I'll make my decision. Anyone interested in seeing if it works...if it does you could always take the cable off me..I'm sure it'll come in handy.
_________________

[Sanctifier]

^ ^ ^ Hold off on purchase for a week or two my friend.
Scanned article to be posted this week on ECU Tuning.

Part A:
::: Use an auxiliary ECU to control the following ECU functions...
... * A/F ratio, Ignition, Boost etc.
... * "Real Time" Octane Mapping and Air-Fuel Ratio adjustment "on-the-fly" for better mileage!
... * Additional "real time" stand-alone "knock sensor" capability.
... * Complete ODB-II diagnostic capability.

Part B: ...
... * Separate add-on "Induction" Ignition Booster for smoother idle and low-speed flexibility.

Parts C: ...
... * Full ECU control of a programmable Water/Methanol Injection System for more reliability
and power.

Part D: coming soon...
It seems that 4G63 2nrs will soon have the chance to do the following...
... * Reflash ECU "base maps" (RPM limit, Speed-cut, Injector-scaling, Radiator fan etc.)
themselves... All this being fully compatible with all the above modules.
BTW free "base maps" are supposed to be supplied as well.

Full test with dyno sheets on Part A, B and C this week...
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!

[R. Mutt]

where'd you source the article - SCC? Sounds like a great read...

I think the real benifit of the reflashing for local tuners who aren't running water injection systems is that it'll allow them to reflash to US Fuel and Timing maps and use that as a starting point for adjustments that will better cater for the modifications they have made in accordance with the local octane. I know guys in california make a good bit less power than those on the East coast...so I don't think MMC of NA catered for the octane difference in seperate states. The local J-spec Evos and STI's are supposed to be running on some serious 98-100 research octane numbers and will have pulled back timing a good bit through the detonation it has had to deal with.

It's not like there is any big set of power to be made, the issue is one of your engines health and inner workings...and I think it's in an owners best interest for his motors health and longevity to make sure it's working as efficiently as possible.
_________________

[Sanctifier]

Here yuh go... King of the "Piggy-backs"?

http://www.zorce.com/zforums/viewtopic.php?p=8178#8178
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!

[Sanctifier]

BTW Something else coming for 4G63 re-flashing.
(Prototype from Vishnu Performance shown - available in about 3-4 months???)


(Nice to have a choice, eh?)
Now we can choose the most cost-effective unit to use with Xede.

[R. Mutt]

Yea, I ordered 2 cables. By the time I reach back the software should be well out and I'll start playing round to see how everything works. Once I understand the ropes I'll sort you out. But I'll pass by and drop your off when I touch down.
_________________

[Sanctifier]

Thanks a lot Mutt.
Hope to have the car sorted by then with Xede installed (but not activated.)
See you then.
_________________
Walk softly... and carry a BIG stick!